Marijuana relief for a cancer patient, just a 3,000-mile hop from home

Saturday

Mar 8, 2014 at 7:33 PM

By MICHAEL POLLICKmichael.pollick@heraldtribune.com

Every few months, cancer patient and Boynton Beach resident Jeffrey Kennedy flies to Northern California — not for treatment, but to get medical-grade marijuana.

There, the 55-year-old helps out on a marijuana farm in Mendocino County, trimming plants and doing other odd jobs.

In return, he receives pot to alleviate neuropathic pain in his legs and a highly concentrated marijuana extract he hopes will cure his bone cancer.

“It is sad I have to get on a plane and travel 3,000 miles to get my medicine,” he said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

It’s estimated that there are tens of thousands of Florida residents like Kennedy, who use marijuana to aid symptoms of illnesses from cancer to Parkinson’s disease.

But because pot is illegal in Florida, most are reluctant to admit they use the drug for any reason.

Kennedy, who possesses a medical marijuana card from the state of California, said he is in a unique position to speak out.

After being arrested for surrounding his pool deck with 26 pots of cannabis plants in 2009, he and lawyer Michael Minardi used medical necessity as a defense.

It worked.

The State Attorney’s Office in Palm Beach County decided not to prosecute just prior to his trial.

“I have already been tried in the courts of Palm Beach County pretty much, and they told me, ‘Mr. Kennedy, you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you.’ ”

Minardi said the defense was based on common law rather than any particular statute.

“What I argue is, No. 1 the person didn’t bring about the disease or illness themselves,” the lawyer said. “No. 2, there is no reasonable alternative for treatment, and No. 3, the harm to society is less than the harm that would come to the person as a result of their disease or illness.”

Minardi credits lawyer Norm Kent of Fort Lauderdale, who has been chairman of the marijuana advocacy group NORML, with coming up with the medical necessity defense.

These days, Minardi has several cases that involve medical cannabis.

Kennedy, meanwhile, credits inhaled marijuana with helping him ditch the opiates he had used for 10 years to combat pain.

After getting a bone cancer diagnosis last summer, he has also begun ingesting a much more concentrated marijuana product called “Rick Simpson Oil.”